Claudette Klein, Ph.D.

Professor EmeritusBiochemistry and Molecular Biology

Research

Development of Zinc as a new chemotherapeutic option for the treatment of cancer.

Research Interests

The primary goal of this research is to develop a new chemotherapeutic option for
the treatment of cancer. We have chosen to develop Zn as a chemotherapeutic agent,
based on our observations that Zn treatment of a variety of cancer cell lines results
cell death. The rapidity with which cell death is induced is very attractive with
respect to treatment protocols and is in dramatic contrast to the days-weeks required
to achieve cell death with current chemotherapeutics. Importantly, Zn-mediated cell
death is independent of the presence or absence of growth factors, is not limited
to rapidly growing cells, and is independent of p53 status.